It only takes one or two narcissists to completely derail business operations.
What's interesting about this is they don't always have to be in positions of power. Mainly, they just have to be untouchable.
Short of threatening their peers with violence, these people will never be fired, and they'll never be removed from their positions. They do just enough work to never warrant poor performance reviews, but also, not enough work to truly push the company forward.
Currently, there are two narcissists in my department that keep us in a stifling, choking holding pattern. One is in a position of power, the other is an individual contributor. The one in power is completely closed off to input and feedback, a cheapskate, and a fundamentally nasty person. This narc alone keeps us from moving forward and being great, but this is to be expected.
What's interesting is the individual contributor narc; whose presence is so psychically disruptive, the department is frozen. Even if you were to remove the narc in power, the I.C. narc would remain, and keep the department held hostage.
How does the I.C. narc do this? She pretends she's unable to take on new assignments (preventing the equal distribution of work), she has no transferable skills or expertise and is not interested in learning any (prevents department from offering new resources to business partners), she is completely closed off to feedback and input (projects end up coming across as unfinished and unprofessional), she is usually in some sort of funk (affects the moods of those around her), and more than any of this- sees nothing wrong with what I've listed above. The removal of this particular narc would propel our department forward by at least three years.
So why haven't they fired her yet? They don't have any real reason to. She "delivers" on the one project she has, and if this is all she's held to, what basis would they have? The problem is, the work they can't give to her they give to myself and another peer. I watch her seethe as assignments and accolades go to other people, but she absolutely refuses to accept those same assignments. More than being unwilling to accept them, she is fundamentally incapable of delivering on the assignments. Upper management has given up and works around her 'inability.'
As a department, our credibility is shot. We have a million conversations around why this is the case, but it really all traces back to two people- one in power who is unwilling to change, and one not in power who is unwilling to change. This unwillingness to be better neutralizes the good work of others and grinds the department down to nubs. As a whole we end up producing a mediocre product that other people can see and are hard pressed to take seriously.
Never underestimate the far-reaching effects a narcissist can have on any environment, but in particular, the business environment. My greatest hope now is to find my way to a better company soon, or hope that a non-narc boss gets hired into upper management, and cleans house.
Wow! I was able to envision this story and interpret the domino effect of the 2 narcs. Looking at narcissists as energy, they are so very dark, stagnant and HEAVY. I remember how my body felt with the few encounters I had with them. Even though I didn't know my father was a narc until recently, all I remember is how I felt blockages in my throat, chest and stomach all the time growing up. The way I understand it, your business environment is just another form of a body and all the people play their different parts in keeping that body functioning properly. Having those 2 narcs blocks the flow of how everyone works so of course it would cause that mediocrity in the production. This was so deep for me in gaining more clarity on how these people operate and bring low vibration energy everywhere they are! Thank you for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteIn my experience as a manager I've notice the night and day difference when "finally" the narc is removed. Hope this happens for you soon.
ReplyDeleteHi P2E, you are doing an excellent job exposing this evil in the workplace, thank you! I hope you find a new company soon or the narcs are booted. I have had 2 covert narc bosses in a row; so my goal is to be able to identify the covert vibe in the interviewing process. My last narc boss decided to deny severance pay after I was laid off. I had legal papers served and now I have entered the rabbit hole with his lies & distortions. The battle is an evil energy drainer and will be long & hard. I have decided to drop the case, walk away, and cut my losses. I'm repulsed by this evil realm that I have entered & want my peace back. Now I understand why most of the advise given is to walk away as quickly as possible & go NO CONTACT.
ReplyDeleteNarcs are truly demonic simply . I would label narcs as full time iniquitizers knowing fully what they do and living in that world is there life period .yes they will be punished in end times more so than average sinners because they thrive off going against the grain .they usually foldup and submit once defeated .yes they will try n try again later but unfortunately for the narcs angels have come to round them all up and test weather they want to pursue this further if not they will be thrown out were they can no longer opperate god is separating goats and sheep . I realy admire this lady of this blog she is correct they are demonic ..
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing it
ReplyDeleteI really like it this kind of information..........Great blog post and really helpful...... and your blog are very interesting and inspiring.
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I worked for a company for18 years with a superior and owner that were narcissist.They harassed me and tried to get me to quit for years and years. I was good at my job and we where union so they knew they couldn't fire me without a fight. Ever day this guy would hover around me trying to catch me not working. Wile he and other guys could talk for as long as they wanted. He would try to find the littlest thing wrong so he could have his gotcha moment.He trumped up reasons that he set up to write me up. The last time was after I went to the union president about yelling at the workers.Finally, after having an argument with the owner about the favoritism he fired me for insubordination. His favorite thing to threaten guys with. He contested my unemployment but after hearing the true story they decided that I wasn't insubordinate and I got my unemployment. I could have fought it with the arbitration but decided I had been traumatized enough. And who knows what I would have gone back to. All those years I had no support from my narcissistic partner and even had her side with them at times. After telling her what happened,just to feed her narcissism. They were some extremely traumatizing years. If I wasn't as strong of mind I might have killed myself or someone else. I have a very good understanding of why some of these mass shootings happen. Though I don't think it is the right thing to do, I had thought about killing this man. It is a serious issue that is not addressed in society. When you are loosing a good job with all the benefits and loosing any more contributation to your retirement because of one man. Because of an owner that thinks that absolute power corrupting absolutely is ok. You will have killings. This man was in charge of the fab shop and the owner had to shut that part of the shop down because it was no longer making him money. And he lost a good painter. That is irony!
ReplyDeleteI think it's amusing to watch narcissist rip each other apart.
ReplyDelete